zelph wrote:I'd like to try that one someday. You've come up with some really tasty looking recipes...thank you!

Thanks! The praise of the praise-worthy is the best compliment!

I served some more of the vietnamese-style pickle to some friends when they came over for dinner last night. They loved it, and asked for the recipe, but lost interest as soon as I said "fish sauce" . I've had that happen before around here. Most of my neighbors are excellent cooks, but shy away from anything spicy or exotic-sounding. Most of them seem to think I am some sort of nutcase for eating weeds and cooking "foreign" food. The nice thing is, I am learning all kinds of good stuff about simple, wholesome american frontier food. For me, that seems almost exotic .

Tonight was a little different. I spent the morning working on a hot roof (stucco on a hard to reach place), then ran off to the farmer's market while the wife played with our son. I got a bunch of stuff to make shelf-pickles (more to come on that) and some early yellow squash (the small, soft yellow ones that don't need to be peeled or seeded, or cooked all that long).

Dinner time rolled around and I wanted something quick and easy:

A few years back my mom got me a little gadget from the "as seen on TV" section at Bed Bath and Beyond called a "Veggetti". It looks like an hour-glass, open at each end, with blades along the inside surface. It turns vegetables into ribbons roughly the size of spaghetti.http://www.amazon.com/Veggetti-Spiral-V ... B00IIVRB3WI have to say, it works as advertised, at least with squash. I haven't tried it with anything else, but we always have enough squash to make it useful, and it takes less space to store than a beer glass. Sometimes I'll make some fresh pasta, then an equal volume of "squash pasta" so as to increase the vegetable content and reduce the carbs. You can't even tell the difference between the pasta and squash, but it adds flavor.

I passed 2 of the squash through it while I gently fried some pepperoni, cut into thin ribbons (go easy, they burn easily). I set aside the pepperoni and used the oil it gave off to fry up some thinly sliced onions and peppers, along with cubes of squash from the leftover stumps. When it started to brown, I added some minced garlic, olive oil and butter, then the squash pasta, tossed until tender (maybe 7 minutes?), then added minced fresh oregano and basil from the garden, some grated parmesan and garnished with the fried pepperoni. Delicious! Took about 40 minutes, start to finish, and pretty healthy.

zelph wrote:gheeesh!!! you come up with some mouth watering recipes. the pepperoni as garnish made made my squirters go bonkers(salivary glands)

Interesting tool for spiral cutting. Do you have to quarter the squash and remove seeds first?

Thanks again, Zelph! That pepperoni garnish is one of my secret weapons. People are always asking what it is, and are surprised when I tell them.

As for the spiral cutting thingy, I don't quarter or seed them, unless I have to to make it fit. The squash was small enough to fit perfectly and the seeds just sort of fell out the end. I tossed them in to cook, no problems.

I will say that you should be sure you are getting the real Veggetti, as amazon has had some customers report recieving Chinese ripoffs that are VERY low quality, even dangerous.

I managed to get a batch of spicy pickled vegetables canned today. I had to time some of it around my son's naps, and it worked out well.

Unfortunately, my new computer will not let me load photos until I update some software, but these jars are BEAUTIFUL! They are hot-pink, layered with different textures. They look like jewels. I used beets, cabbage, carrots, red onions, corn and jalepenos. Baby carrots and jalepenos makes a spicy snack, too. Great way to preserve low-acid vegetables. The vinegar makes it very unlikely that botulism can grow.

Cut the recipe in half, if you want, and make refrigerator pickles. Proceed as above, filling 3-4 jars, cap, cool (no boiling water bath needed) and store in the refrigerator for up to a month.

I serve this with stir-fried meat, steamed vegetables and rice in the winter. Brings some of the fresh taste of summer into a winter meal. I save the leftover liquid to use in chicken salad (made with home-canned chicken-yum), in salad dressings or dipping sauces, or you can just re-boil it and make more pickles or pickled eggs (they are better pickled in the used liquid, and beets color them nicely!).

If you get around to making pickled eggs, give yourself a real treat and make scotch eggs using the pickled eggs! Scotch eggs are hard boiled eggs wrapped in sausage, breaded then deep fried. Usually they are served with dijon mustard, but I like them with Chinese hot mustard and sweet and sour sauce. I also use tempura batter instead of bread crumbs. I usually make these when my wife isn't around, because she says it makes her "feel fat"

I forgot to ask- Anybody got a good recipe for shank? A buddy gave me some alpaca shanks (yes, alpaca ). I also have venison shank, lamb shank and pork shank in the freezer. Gotta find a way to use it all soon...

Also, I found a youtube channel that I'm in love with. "Helen's recipes"... when you see Helen, and her recipes, you'll see why... I stumbled across her channel when I was looking for recipes for pork belly.

churro wrote:I forgot to ask- Anybody got a good recipe for shank? A buddy gave me some alpaca shanks (yes, alpaca ). I also have venison shank, lamb shank and pork shank in the freezer. Gotta find a way to use it all soon...

Also, I found a youtube channel that I'm in love with. "Helen's recipes"... when you see Helen, and her recipes, you'll see why... I stumbled across her channel when I was looking for recipes for pork belly.

Thing I like about Helen's recipes is that the food turns out to be every bit as pretty and dignified as she is. The colors, contrasts, how shiny things are. Inspiring!

Smart young lady, too. Her videos are well made, and she just published a cookbook, in both english and vietnamese versions. Each recipe has one of those little barcode type things next to it that will connect your smartphone to a video demonstration of the recipe. She must be having some success because she has been able to build a studio kitchen to support her work. Nice to see a self-made tv cook, and none of that high-pressure reality-show tension to make it happen!